WHAP Vocab quiz 4A

Caravel

A small, highly maneuverable three-masted ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish in the exploration of the Atlantic.

Columbian Voyages

1492-1502 4 trips that set the stage for European exploration and colonization of the Americas

Creoles

In colonial Spanish America, term used to describe someone of European descent born in the New World. Elsewhere in the Americas, the term is used to describe all nonnative peoples.

Encomienda

A grant of authority over a population of Amerindians in the Spanish colonies. It provided the grant holder with a supply of cheap labor and periodic payments of goods by the Amerindians. It obliged the grant holder to Christianize the Amerindians.

Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese navigator who led the Spanish expedition of 1519-1522 that was the first to sail around the world.

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish explorer who conquered the Incas in what is now Peru and founded the city of Lima (1475-1541).

Hernan Cortes

Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the conquest of Aztec Mexico in 1519-1521 for Spain.

Measles

an acute and highly contagious viral disease marked by distinct red spots followed by a rash. Brought from Eastern hemisphere to the New World

Mercantilism

An economic policy under which nations sought to increase their wealth and power by obtaining large amounts of gold and silver and by selling more goods than they bought. Also required colonies to trade only with their motherland country.

Middle Passage

The part of the Atlantic Circuit involving the transportation of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas

Northwest Passage

A water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific through northern Canada and along the northern coast of Alaska. Sought by navigators since the 16th century. Practically nonexistent in the Early Modern Era.

Peninsulares

People who lived in the New World Spanish or Portuguese colonies but were born on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal).

Tenochtitlan

Capital of the Aztec Empire, located on an island in Lake Texcoco. Its population was about 150,000 on the eve of Spanish conquest. Mexico City was constructed on its ruins.

trading post empire

16th Century. Built initially by the Portuguese, these were used to control the trade routes by forcing merchant vessels to call at fortified trading sites and pay duties there. Control of trade sites as opposed to large colonies.

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement between Portugal and Spain, declaring that newly discovered lands to the west of an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean would belong to Spain and newly discovered lands to the east of the line would belong to Portugal.

Indentured Servant

A migrant to British colonies in the Americas who paid for passage by agreeing to work for a set term ranging from four to seven years.

Smallpox

a disease introduced by European colonizers which caused devastating epidemics among Indigenous populations in the Americas